[PARAGON RADIO FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1st!]

that's dinner time for me west coast, but I'll check it out

[Guide to Controller Electric/Kinetic while Leveling with Teams]

1 hour ago, Overclock said:

One note: Increase Density gives the +Resistance to everyone it hits, but only the person you target gets the mezz resistance part of the effect. It's weird and annoying, but important to remember since it means you do need to cast it individually on people who need the Mezz Prot (if  you care, generally squishies can fend for themselves).

Thank you, I edited my post to include that.  I did not know that.

[What play styles should the Dev team support: solo, teams, story, powerleveling, etc]

2 minutes ago, Demon Shell said:

Why do you think this is such a difficult and time-consuming process?

 

The answer isn't one or the other. It's "Yes".

 

Because the devs only have so much time.  So saying "Yes" to all is saying you don't care if you get any of them.

 

If the devs spend the next year working only on pvp content for teams of 3 stalkers are you going to be happy?  You said "Yes" to it.

 

[Should all ATs and all powersets support all major playstyles: team, solo, pve, pvp, etc?]

Controllers and tankers are painful to play solo.  It looks like they are changing tankers in test to let them solo.   With 4 melee AT's it was Stalkers solo, Tankers team, Brutes and Scrappers team or solo - and brutes and scrappers are fairly redundant already.  If they can all team and solo well will it end up with one best melee AT and 3 also rans?

 

Some powersets like gravity for controllers are meant for soloing while others are meant for teaming.  Given the popularity of teaming, that means those sets are used less.  If powersets were just generic descriptions "solo only control" "solo and small team control" "pvp control" it would not be a problem.  But powersets have a style and some players want that style for their character either thematically or just because.  So if you want to make a gravity controlling astronaut but team, you either accept a set that is bad at teaming or play something else.  

 

So should CoX go with the original idea that ATs and powersets are good at different styles of play.  Choose one that matches your style.  Or should it be that ATs and Devs are thematic and they should all cater to everyone's playstyle?

[What play styles should the Dev team support: solo, teams, story, powerleveling, etc]

This question is not simply what do players like to do in CoX.  It is what should the devs devote time to and what should the devs adjust the game for everyone to achieve.  

 

Playstyles I can think of (whether or not the dev should support them): solo, small teams, large teams, raids, playing stories, creating stories, roleplaying, getting badges/achievements, exploring, powerleveling, making the most powerful character you can, farming, challenging regular characters, challenging ultra powerful characters, making influence, unlocking macguffins that show you achieved something, playing a variety of events (seasonal or otherwise), pvp duels, open world pvp, street sweeping, missions, task forces.

 

I am sure there are many I have missed.  And I am not sure that players want the devs to support all of things I have listed.  So what playstyles do you like that you want to have supported?

[Guide to Controller Electric/Kinetic while Leveling with Teams]

Guide to Controller Electric/Kinetic while Leveling with Teams

 

This guide covers the power for an electric/kinetic controller while leveling with teams. How to use them, how useful they are, and how to slot them. It completely ignores end game and IO sets. It also mostly ignores soloing as soloing a controller while leveling is just painful.

 

Why Electric/Kinetic? Electric while leveling relies primarily on Static Field for control with occasional Tesla Cage and Jolting Chain. This leaves time to use the kinetic powers which are fairly active. Team mates appreciate your controls and will love speed boost and damage boosts.

 

Why not take Electric/Kinetic? Electric is low damage. Kinetics provides little protection to you or your allies and the heal cannot be targeted at allies who are away from foes. It relies entirely upon hitting, if your foes are too high or have high defenses and you cannot hit you cannot debuff them, control them, or heal. It is also a fairly active combination that may be too clicky for some.

 

Recharge Note: This is a guide for the combination of powersets.  Kinetics provides a recharge reduction in siphon speed.  Because of this I do not recommend slotting recharge into some powers like Tesla Cage that I would normally put a recharge into.  If you add hasten to the character you may want to reduce your recharge slots even further.

 

Accuracy Note: This recommends slotting one for accuracy. If you want to take on higher level foes than you, you will probably want to slot a second accuracy in your powers. This generally will not be a problem while leveling unless you sidekick up to level 50 teams.

 

Electric Control

 

Electric Fence is a single target immobilize and DoT. It and Tesla Cage are your highest damage powers, doing 3x the single target damage of chain fence or jolting chains and only Gremlins also does damage at all. So you need this for damage, but I rarely use this on a team unless it is full of controllers and lacks damage. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 damage.

 

Tesla Cage is a single target hold and damage. As one of your two high damage powers you should slot this for damage, accuracy, and a bit of hold. You do not need recharge as speed boost will give you the little bit you might want. I use this every time it is up, targeting a lieutenant if possible to hold the highest value target I can. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 damage, 2 hold.

 

Chain Fences is a AoE immobilize with minor damage. Against a group of foes it will do more damage than Electric Fence and will set up containment if you get an AoE damage power from somewhere. I skip this power, if I were soloing I would take it. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 damage.

 

Jolting Chain is foe knockdown and minor damage that jumps from foe to foe. With an 8 second recharge you can use this quite often. Since knockdown works on bosses, this is a very powerful control and I use it every time it is up. It is also great fun to watch. Although 1/3 the damage of Electric Fence it can hit multiple foes and do more damage overall although the activation is longer. It has to hit its first target to jump to others, so try to target a minion with it. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 damage.

 

Conductive Aura is a toggle that drains End from nearby foes and gives you +Rec and +Regen based on the number of nearby foes. It costs no Endurance to run so you should have it always on if you take it. The End drain stacks with your other electric powers and will drain your foes at lower levels where fights take longer. The +Rec is helpful if you stand by a bunch of foes. I never notice the +Regen. Slot with 1 End Modification, if you are around a bunch of foes you do not need more and if you are not by foes more will not help.

 

Static Field creates an AoE field that lasts 25 seconds and puts foes to sleep every few seconds. So while they will be woken up by damage they will go back to sleep again. With a base recharge of 40 seconds it is easy to have this available every fight. It can be place out of LoS, so this is a great alpha breaker. Hide behind cover and place this before your team attacks a spawn. Also, because it reapplies, even if it misses a foe initially it will eventually hit them. Just make sure to use this where you are fighting, if you place it and the foes run out of the area they will not keep getting reslept. Slot 1 accuracy, 2 recharge (a third recharge will only cut a few seconds off of recharge and is not worth it).

 

Paralyzing Blast is an AoE hold. It is great, but it has a base recharge of 4 minutes so it is not available very often. If you cannot hide around a corner and drop Static Field, you can open with this as the hold will prevent them from firing back. Otherwise save this for a panic button or to deal with adds. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 recharge, 2 hold.

 

Synaptic Overload is a confusion that jumps to other foes. It can affect an entire spawn but it takes time to spread (1 second delay between jumps) so it is not very good control in a fight. But it does not cause aggro. So use this on a spawn you have to tackle head on to soften them up, or on a nearby spawn you are worried might get aggro'd. Slot 1 accuracy. If you solo a lot put in 3 recharge.

 

Gremlins are pets that do some damage and can knock does down. Use these when available for extra damage and mayhem. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 damage, 2 recharge.

 

Kinetics

 

Transfusion gives a foe -End and -Regen and heals allies (including you) around the target. Use the healing for your team, but remember to stand close to heal yourself and advise your team as well. Also use the -Regen on AVs and GMs. Although they will only suffer a fraction of the effect, it helps a lot on DfB hydras, DiB shivan obliterator and others you will encounter. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 healing.

 

Siphon Power gives a foe -DMG and you and allies near you +DMG (note this is the reverse of Transfusion which heals near the target, this buffs around you). The effect stacks, so use it whenever it is up. The bonus to your team damage is usually more important than reducing damage on one foe so target a minion so you hit more reliably. Slot 1 accuracy, 1 recharge reduction.

 

Repel is a toggle that knocks back foes and costs Endurance when it does so. You do not need the control and do not want to pay the Endurance. I skip this.

 

Siphon Speed gives a foe -SPD (not -Recharge) and you (not your allies) +SPD and +Recharge. The effect stacks so use it whenever it is up. And target a minion so you hit more reliably. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 recharge reduction.

 

Increase Density is a team buff that targets one ally and buffs all the others in an area, except you. It provides them with resistance to disorient, immobilize, and hold and 18% resistance to smashing and energy damage for 60 seconds. Increase Density gives the +Resistance to everyone it hits, but only the person you target gets the mezz resistance part of the effect.  It says it slows their movement but it no longer actually does so. Keep this up buff on your allies. Slot for 1 damage resistance as End cost is trivial every 60s and recharge is trivial at 3 seconds.

 

Speed Boost is a team buff that targets one ally and buffs all the others in an area, except you. They will move faster but the important buffs are +Recharge and +Recovery. It lasts two minutes. It does not stack with itself from the same source. Reapply it before it ends. Slot 1 Endurance Modification as nothing else matters with the power.

 

Inertial Reduction is a buff to yourself and the team that gives you all temporary superleap. Skip this power.

 

Transference is a single target drain of a foe's endurance that gives End to you and allies around you. It is generally useful to give people End, although if they have Speed Boost they may not need it. It is especially useful with Electric to drain the End from one tough foe and then you can keep them at zero End. This is your control for EBs and AVs. Slot 1 Accuracy and maybe End Modification if you find you want more End drain.

 

Fulcrum Shift is the team buff that makes everyone want a kinetic in the team. It gives -Dmg to foes in the target area and gives +Dmg to you and your nearby allies for each foe you hit. So use this at the start of fights on the biggest collection of foes. Do not use this at the end of fights if it comes back up as using it on a few foes then instead of a lot at the start of the next fight is a waste. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 recharge reduction.

 

[Smooth out the early level experience on Kinetics.]

28 minutes ago, Neogumbercules said:

I disagree on Kinetics being in contention for the best set. It's really hard to compare apples to apples because every support powerset in this game is doing something different, but overall, Kin is pretty bad at lower to mid levels, outside of speed boost its got nothing going for it.

 

Kinetics is the most popular Controller support set with double the usage of the next set.

 

Kinetics is the most popular corruptor support set with 50% more than the next sest.

 

Kinetics is the second most popular defender support set - a distant second to empathy.

 

So at least controller and corruptor players seem to think it is the best set.

 

 

[Some suggestions of my own]

Maybe there should be separate forums for AE farms and AE stories

[Is there a curated list of non-farm AE content?]

If you want to see stories in AE and not farm, is there a list being maintained of the content in AE?  Preferably with reviews as to how good it is?

[Some suggestions of my own]

I have not checked out AE since I came back to homecoming.  Is it used for actual content or just for farming?

[Smooth out the early level experience on Kinetics.]

The problem is that kinetics is probably the best set.  Set buffing it would be crazy.  I agree it is painful at low levels, so you either swap powers around or buff lower powers and nerf higher level powers.

 

And basically what makes kinetics is fulcrum shift.  While repel and inertial reduction are basically useless.   But having useless powers on a balanced set is actually better for the set.  You can skip those powers and still get all of the real use out of the set.

 

 

 

[If you could redesign the inherent powers...]

I would make scrappers off tanks

 

Scrappers would get a non-self stacking buff to Res and Def when they attack based on the type of enemy they are attacking.  GM's big buff down to minions little buff.  So scrappers should look for the toughest thing to attack.

 

[Make TO, DO, and SO enhancement drops be +3 levels]

I haven't looked at selling inspirations on the AH, I will do so.

[Stickied Costume Request Thread.]

42 minutes ago, Fista said:

bump.. Unless there already is one and I just can't find it?

It's not stickied but it's never far from the top.  It's in the Art forum

 

 

[Make TO, DO, and SO enhancement drops be +3 levels]

I want to use enhancements at low levels.  Doing missions at level 8 with no enhancements is much slower than doing them with enhancements.  But the enhancement drops are at level, which makes them half way to being useless.  If enhancement drops were at +3 levels you could slot them and use them for 3+ levels.  As it is, they are just vendor trash.

[COMPLETE SET PROLIFERATIONS]

I would like to see full set proliferation and then stop making sets.

 

We have too many sets to find a purpose for each of them now let alone trying to balance them.  But I want sonic on a dominator

[Allow turning off minion spawn as a difficulty level]

At high levels minions just melt and may as well not be there.  It would be nice like you turn off spawning bosses to turn off spawning minions.  Just spawn lts, bosses, and above.

 

I would not turn off lts as for many villain groups they provide critical roles such as healing, buffs, or controls.

[Patch Notes for October 29th, 2019]

And there was much rejoicing!

[About Knockback/Sudden Acceleration]

Just now, Itikar said:

Actually the change from knockback to knockdown is generally a nerf by itself. Or at least it is so for ranged characters that happen to have more often knockback powers.

 

Any change a player chooses to make is assumed to be a buff.  They may be foolish and nerfing themselves, but if they chose to make the decision you can assume they chose it because it makes them better.

 

My first character was an energy/energy blaster.  I love knockback.  I spent a lot of time in Skyway knocking trolls off of the overpasses.  I do not want to see kb go away. 

 

But I also hate in games when something like bonfire works badly unless you know this trick that lets you turn it into one of the best powers in the game.  I'd rather not make that a secret players have to discover and level the playing field for players who do not search online for how to optimize their character.

[Create special ATs that reset randomly every 3 months for PvP and AE only]

Many players really play Mids and then use CoX to demonstrate how good the builds they designed in Mids are.  They are character designers, not character players.

 

Magic the Gathering has a similar playerbase and they keep them engaged (and paying) by creating new sets every so often.  When a new set comes out players have to learn it and design new decks, instead of just using the ones they have had for years.

 

So this idea is to do that for CoX.  I would limit it to pvp and some sandbox for trying characters like AE, rather than making it work in the general world.  And in pvp it should probably be limited where it works as well.

 

Create a new Designer AT for each AT except the EAT and VEAT.  Each of these AT would have one primary and one secondary powerset exclusive to them.  Then every 3 months (or some other time frame) each AT randomly selects a power at each level from the regular powersets for the regular version of that AT.  When it resets the character gets a free respec so they can redesign their character for the new powers available.

 

For example: Controller Designer AT has Designer Control Primary and Designer Controller Secondary.  Randomly it determines for the primary it gets its 1st power from ice, 2nd from illusion, 3rd from electric, 4th from illusion, 5th from fire, etc.  Then 3 months later it resets the primary and this time it gets its 1st power from mind, 2nd from darkness, 3rd from electric, 4th from fire, etc.

 

This would get players who like to design builds a chance to try new builds every 3 months, without causing chaos for the rest of the players.

[Change VEAT choice of subclass to level 2]

I want to play a fortunata who is a stealthy character with control powers.  But I have to play a sentinel with some ranged and melee attacks and a defense set for 23 levels before I can play a fortunata.

 

If you were learning how to play the AT for those levels and then had a choice to make about progressing I would understand it.  But the base widow plays nothing like a fortunata as far as I can tell, so I'm basically playing a different AT.

 

You can powerlevel to 24 of course, but it would be great if at level 2 you got the choice of which version of SoA or Widow you wanted to play.

[About Knockback/Sudden Acceleration]

2 minutes ago, roleki said:

@DougGraves What do you think would be an acceptable curb value, in a toggle scenario?  -10% Damage?  -10% Recharge?  No change,  but a 3.5PPM KB proc just to remind you it's there?

I don't do numbers.  But the OP is requesting that they be able to not use 1 enhancement to change kb->kd so they can use that enhancement to be more powerful.  So that is just a request for power.

 

If you did not have to get a kb->kd enhancement and used that slot for something else and the resulting power was the same power as if you had to use a kb->kd enhancement then it would be balanced.  You would be saving the annoyance of needing to get a kb->kd enhancement but not becoming more powerful because you got it for free.

 

If the issue is solo vs team, it could be a toggle that changed kb->kd and gave a penalty of some sort to the power.  So you could turn it on while teaming and turn it off while soloing.  Then you would not have that penalty while soloing.

[About Knockback/Sudden Acceleration]

I would be happy to have the ability to change kb to kd without requiring a slot or enhancement as long as they nerf all of the kb powers to account for being kd.

 

if this comes out balanced I am fine with it.  If this is just another request for more power I don't think we need more power.

[Allow adding notes to characters in the character select screen]

On 10/27/2019 at 11:39 AM, RikOz said:

Something similar that I've wished for is character notes in the SG roster. Like a short, simple "Notes" field. 

Related - I can add a note to a global friend but I can't figure out how to see the notes I've added.  I'm sure there is a way to do it, I just cannot figure it out and never think to look it up out of the game.

[Blaster Secondaries: Why?]

No AT gets the same powersets twice.  You cannot have a defender that has two buff/debuff sets.  No scrapper that gets two melee attack sets.  No mastermind that gets two pets sets.

 

Blasters have a ranged damage set and a melee damage set.  That's just how AT's work.  It makes sense.  Not being what you want does not mean it does not make sense.

 

If you want ranged damage and buff/debuff you can go corruptor or defender.  It makes no sense to change blaster to function like one of those two ATs.